it's 5 pm here in moscow and the breaking news this friday the united states assassinated iran's top military commander in an early morning air strike in iraq provoking threats of retaliation from to iran and its allied militias. you know the news the turkish parliament a decision to deploy troops to libya comes in for strong criticism as israel greece and cyprus fear it will lead to a further escalation in the region. and continuing our rewind of 29 teams key chapters we remember the tragedy that struck. in paris so dramatic coming up.

good afternoon early in the new year but it's turned into a busy news day january 3rd my name's kevin though in this is live from h.q. i'm here with a half hour world news update hope you stick around to for the whole lot for the next 25 minutes or so so the big story in from the middle east let me tell you catching up the u.s. secretary of state has defended america's assassination of iran's top military commander cosimo seller money in a drone strike in baghdad international airport early this morning my pompei a claim to the attack saved american lives and said that washington remains committed to deescalating tensions with tehran. that was the time to take this action so that we could disrupt this plot deter further aggression from chaos and salami in the iranian regime as well as to attempt to deescalate the situation the early morning raid also reportedly killed 9 others including influential iraqi and lebanese shia militias militia leaders that believed to have been leaving the pool

into vehicles when the attack took place the money would lead the powerful could source which is an elite branch of the iranian revolutionary guard corps charged with spearheading foreign operations units being heavily involved in the conflicts in iraq and syria and instrumental in the territorial defeat of ice still in the us the general was listed as a terrorist the pentagon says he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of american service personnel and was actively planning further attacks iran's leaderships reacted fear is lead to the assassination which was ordered apparently direct by president trump and have promised there will be retribution. the u.s. act of international terrorism targeting and assassinating general saloon money the most effective force fighting dying isis al-qaeda and how is extremely dangerous and a foolish escalation the u.s. business sponsibility for all consequences of its rogue adventurism just as

unprecedented in how how tense things are how both countries are in this is this is the abbotts this is the abas to kill assassinate the man who is referred to as the 2nd most powerful man in iran a potential successor to the supreme leader he was killed after arriving at the airport in baghdad the u.s. airstrike he was he was targeted in this operation was preplanned they knew he was coming they knew where to strike the they were targeting him at the direction of the president the u.s. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect u.s. personnel abroad by killing customs so in money this strike was aimed at deterring future iranian attack plans the united states will continue to take all necessary action to protect our people and our interests wherever they are around the world and the fallout has been global leaders all over the world officials come out.

against you know urging calm and deescalation and the reunions convening the national security council they have one message the entire ring and hierarchy that there will be consequences retaliation if there is as of yet no indication how exactly the iranians will respond to it respond to this but they haven't launched any missiles yet and you know the they are stupid they're intelligent people they probably understand a war with the united states is the last thing they need but i doubt that the leave this you know without without an answer and so how is the u.s. justifying the myth while the united states is saying that. he was the ultimate bad guy this is this is from the state department this is in american press that we just killed the world's number one bad guy this is this is simpson in modeling he was at the forefront of the fight against isis in iraq when it seemed like isis the

job this would go to take the whole country was he who helped organize the p.m.s. the popular mobilization forces the iraqi civilians banding together to resist ties us and successfully while the army was in shambles as they got their things in order help by the coalition but they defeated isis what the united states has been saying is that he is responsible for the deaths of 517 americans over the years that he was complicit that he had a rule to play in recent in the recent spate of attacks on u.s. bases.

draw some indications that they may be planning additional attacks if that happens the act and by the way we get word of attacks or some type of indication will take preemptive action as well to protect american forces to protect american lives. they disregard sovereignty did it by the government they disregard the people of iraq there their utter arrogant behavior is has made the whole region outraged and then they wonder why people hate america but wasn't for a general sort of money there probably wouldn't be a syria today and there were. the black flag was over damascus thanks to the united states and its allies and if it wasn't for general stolen money probably there wouldn't be in iraq today and the capital over the capital we would have had the black sides of isis iraqis except for those bathurst who supported saddam hussein

in isis supporters who are celebrating the overwhelming majority of iraqis supports general salomone and are grateful to them for helping save the country wherever the united states goes and destroys its all for its all to defend democracy and freedom and the american people which is all nonsense so more ramifications the u.s. is no urging american citizens to leave iraq immediately and not to approach the embassy in baghdad the secure green zone where the american embassy and iraqi government is located is in lockdown all day might pompei again though believes the strikes have largely been welcomed in iraq. iraqis iraqis dancing in the street for freedom thankful that general salim army is no more only care we are on american iran should solve their problems outside the market what we do not want them to solve it here we do not celebrate the killing or so the money

or anyone else because this will not serve us at the end of the day. as we heard in iran were solid money was widely revered the assassination is triggered an outpouring of grief and anger 3 days of mourning have been enhanced now and thousands of iranians have turned out in cities across the country to on of the general a correspondent part of the world paula slayer going to bring us more on what the world reaction has been such a big move that the americans have made it such a big strike what's being said run it out for us. well certainly we've witnessed reaction from the international community and particularly here in the region the concern is that the american actions will destabilize the situation there is a lot of criticism being leveled at the united states tookie has accused the america. president of destabilizing the middle east a view that is being echoed by syria that also says that this will only fuel the conflict not. leader of the iran backed his the group that is based in lebanon has called for the resistance the world over to avenge the killing and at the same time

and now they reining back in the gaza strip has expressed its condolences to tehran and as for the iraqi government they have accused the americans also to quote aggression that they say will lead to a devastating war taken this on. the assassination of an iraqi military commander is an aggression on iraq as a state government and people it's a flagrant violation of iraq's sovereignty and dangerous escalation that triggers a destructive war in iraq the region and the world it violates the conditions authorizing the presence of u.s. troops on iraqi soil. cowardly u.s. aggression will only strengthen determination to follow in the path of the resistance these months of leaders. right now here in tel aviv the top defense officials of israel are holding an emergency meeting the israeli army has been put on high alert particularly along the borders in the

north and the south and that is out of concern that there could be some kind of reaction from either hamas or hizbullah talking to israelis on the ground many fear that there will be a reaction the question is just when and what form it will take having said all of that the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has welcomed the attack and praised the american president donald trump. president roh deserves all the credit for acting swiftly forcefully decisively. with the united states in its just struggle for spruce security and so. the american action was a reaction to a series of military provocations for which iran is responsible we also see with great concern to around 60 of it is in the region we stand before then dress escalation. the reaction from european leaders has been more moderate not despite the concern being expressed that this will destabilize the region no one has been bold enough to really come straight out and criticize the

american president nato has said that it is monitoring the situation closely and you're the next 1224 maybe 48 hours very critical of those could be busy couldn't ok well thank you for that for now if you get to hear any more any more please come back over the coming hours throughout the afternoon bringing you various thoughts about it as well a political analyst i spoke to believes this airstrike and the way it was authorized indeed shows that america he told me as a state is not a democracy. iraq was not warned congress was not consulted. this was trump and his new york people more than likely mr cushman mr netanyahu who run mr trump essentially you know alongside compay are now the sort of officially you know no longer formally as part of the administration mr bolton because if you examine what's going on online you see these people posting messages of joy now even if they don't like us and so they moni want to seem to not understand the

ramifications of what they have done this move has united the iranian people it is really united the iraqi people the syrians the yemeni liberals on the palestinian movement which is united everyone against america sound of death to america is getting louder and louder and louder and there's nothing america can do about it this is by its own home by its own activity. in the wake of the strikes in the us republican lawmakers have expressed support for the decision but many democrats a furious that the president took such a hazardous step without seeking congressional approval 1st. that ministration has conducted to night strike in iraq targeting high level iranian military officials and killing iranian quds force commander quote some silly money without another 3rd is a shoo in for use of military force against iran further this action was taken without the consultation of the congress. to actually do what they're trying to they did

today and that previous airstrikes before definition of general gotten from a money is ever lation to 1st of all not only to the international law but also to do it against the american constitution and access a nation at this big and this is an important person and the region that will lead the whole road the whole region thought was no he needs. the approval of the congress and he did not approve of. he did not have it so he did that violate the american constitution and i do think the american democratic party will use that against him in congress then there should be an investigation in the united states for who took the decision why when and we are and the trump should be punished because he did. break the constitution and this is not the 1st time. we'll keep track of you cut as well if you don't come across in social media the next another big story several countries condemned the turkish parliament decision to send

troops to libya in the last 24 hours israel greece and cyprus are voice their concern over a possible escalation of the conflict in the region the cold in turkey's plans reckless. the turkey's decision to deploy troops in libya presents a dangerous threat to regional stability the repercussions of such reckless move will be dire for the stability and peace of the entire region in a phone call with the turkish leader the us president also raised concerns that foreign interference could further complicate the situation in libya though the 2 did apparently agreed to maintain their diplomatic cooperation multiple forces have been vying for power in libya since the ousting of longtime leader. back in 2011 it's a complicated picture there a u.s. government of national call controls the capital tripoli it will you see on the graph with some coastal areas in the west of the country that its rival the self-styled libyan national army over into brocaded by general khalifa haftar holds

a large swathes in eastern and central libya there's also a 3rd region controlled by local tribes of militias now the un backed government formally requested military aid from turkey last month mr owen said he'd get considerate street got straight down to business early january in the face of an onslaught by half the us forces libya's neighbors her vall so voiced major reservations over the troop deployment plans now egypt calling on the international community to respond urgently we've been hearing analysis from turkey and beyond about ankara's move and its possible repercussions going forward. we see a very soft announcement by the arab league we can see that they're unified only by name we're seeing turkey become more and more now the major player in not only libya in the north africa and the east and the middle east turkey is showing that it's not going to shy away and president add one is willing to use his military muscle to get the results he wants at the diplomatic table as well turkey made

a very important chess move. greeks. egyptians. of course are very disappointed by this decision. turkey's strategic move will. bring some. advantages strategic advantages for turkey we will see the method the manner of how turkey is dealing with this problem and challenges in the coming days if turkey sent more troops then general haftar will also get more support from the governments he's already there are already back including and especially egypt the united arab emirates they will send their own proxies or through more weapons so in that sense the situation could definitely escalate in a military sense. it's coming to 17 minutes past 5 in the evening here in moscow remember these pictures from the year just gone but

a little but among the defining impressionism 29 take this really major mast up to the. cathedral. off the break we'll revisit the tragedy in the assess how long it's going to take the from story cover. join me every day on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to the world of sport i'm showbusiness i'll see you then.

well from russia broadcasting around the world this is r.t. international thanks for your company this early 2020 would take a minute though to look back at some of the highlights if you like the 2019 the good the bad and this was a bad one let's take a moment again to take stock of some of the defining events of the year focusing on

the next. yeah in april the blaze tore through not to drunken phaedra in paris nearly destroying the 850 year old beautiful mark it was devastating for the building and also for so many who lived in that city and further afield shelley dubinsky reports next on just how deeply it was felt in france and how the scars will remain for decades to come. fronts was shaking to its core in april fully a ravaged the jewel of paris not to dom.

across the world they was show too with blanket coverage over the place and harry in paris thousands came out to the streets standing shoulder to shoulder what ching they sang trees old cathedral. my heart just dropped like. are you kidding me it was completely shocking and i was just constantly like ok the couple when he would say the tears everything just complete just. just refreshing closely looking for any sort of update and i thought it was gone i thought there was no way you know they were going to put it out at all. everyone at work we just kept refreshing the page and seeing what caused it what had happened we couldn't believe that notre dame was on fire we were at home in seattle and we had literally booked our plane tickets to france the night before and was going to be one of the highlights of course it was it was a little bit of

a blow really came in the early hours that it could be saved but it was. that cost was being counted with a price tag potentially reaching billions of euros money polled in from wealthy benefactors and people chipping in what they could but that provoked anger itself many frustrated that the money was so forthcoming for a building when people were struggling to make ends meet the outrage intensified when the authorities were accused of not being completely upfront about lead contamination in the area following the fire some 450 tons of lead in the roof and the steeple melted during the blaze schools were closed for decontamination but many accused the state of putting the reconstruction of the cathedral ahead of people's health and environmental defense association decided to take matters into

its own hands it accused the authorities of having lacked in their response and in transparency it is a question of establishing who is responsible for this miscommunication which has left the population uninformed on the dangers to which it is exposed in our opinion people's lives have been in danger since the night of the disaster because the environmental code requires elected officials to provide precautionary information in real time on public airwaves unfortunately. we never heard this advice and people and journalists stayed around the cathedral on the forecourt and whole families stayed on the ground on the terraces with all the windows open watching this disturbing show without knowing that the plumes hitting them consisted of extremely toxic lead dust and went dangerous to health but officials claimed there was no risk and somewhat angry about the coverage of the contamination at the site

saying that all old buildings were built using leds and there was too much fear mongering don't. you really have to lie on the ground if you want to see this story about lead has been around for a long time that's causing inundation a problem for the not true don destroy those isolated from the tourists travel agents across the world were forbidden in a certain way to come to paris. because of the risk of contamination which didn't exist 8 months old and this is what surrounds. a huge perimeter fence safeguarding the site's tourist numbers through hay though more of a trickle than the flood that they used to be and that has hit the businesses around the cathedral halt to at least we have lost tourists we have lost the pilgrims we have problems with the restoration work or not and with the level of security that is because the building is still not secure and we suffer from all these houses the businesses here have seen their sales figures drop at least by 80

percent during certain periods currently let me the month of december average 70 percent trade is hey want to return to the status quo but the work to secure this so i can restore it to its former glory is expected to take years in the meantime some businesses fear that they may end up on the cheap too just like much. in 2019. paris yeah you never know what every new year will bring do you. more reminiscences more thoughts from you to come up in the coming days as well here on this show as we head into a brand new tech a thanks for watching us as well as we head into 2020 this is our international money was kevin island back with more in about 34 minutes time if you want to keep up to date with all the news there is a lot around today it's already dot com or social media in between times.

time of the time cold parisian to repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important. transition to sustainable prize board sustainability stay number may not be more equitable and sustainable world. they claim their production is completely harmless. looking into this. companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something else this must be going to any minute i'm not even looking. since i'm in a museum we didn't want anyone and i'm stymied seemed to be best understood so when . thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the country's military the

decision lotos sheltered lives every thing came to a complete. the day that i was right to be instructed is you know told to shut up or they'd kill me and i see how would destroy. any screamed at me and he made me come in and you graham my arm and he raped me just berthing area if you take into account that women don't report because of the extreme retaliation and it's probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us military rape is a very very traumatizing thing tat happen but i've never seen trauma like i've seen women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting rape is more likely to get the victim punished them the offender i had an almost 10 year career or chose very invested in and i gave that up to report a sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the registry this is simply an issue of tower and violence male sexual predators for the large part of

target whoever is there to prey upon whether that's a man or woman. welcome to sophie. shevardnadze they call him. for his no mercy approach to the evils of the modern society and masking them. today i talked to literally create a t.v. presenter and film director. but if i go back there it's really nice to have you with us today's been a while we wanted to have an interview with you what a chance that you're here in moscow so i want to start with back with your collection that's a new project that's going to come out in 6 months it's sort of

a compilation of french writers you're not a neat you're a producer or an editor of this thing and it's supposed to talk it's supposed to show the french way on eternal matters and i correct exactly what are they so matters you know it's a crazy idea is that russian writer famous. of the 2 asked me to choose my favorite books of contemporary writers and put my name on the cover instead of theirs but no i will ask that my name is smaller than the name of the author it's just that we present my favorite novels of the last 10 years. so no voters about yet today about the the the world how it's changing so quickly and so we really. we're working on the list we're working on the translations we didn't choose everything but it's very cloudy and i think it's

a beautiful idea because we need ideas to. put closer our 2 cultures france and russia we're very close in the 19th century and now less crazy nations like you that much to crazy. anything anyway in a good way we like to criticize everything relate to complain we are subjective we like parties we like to go out we like seduction yeah you like beautiful woman russian men like beautiful women tell about but do i understand correctly that in this new book that's coming out it's going to be only french writers or i cannot tell you definitively because we are working but i hope that we.